This tells me moms are hungry for more than just good food: they want information about how to take care of their kids’ health. It’s written into our genes when the Creator makes us “Mommy”, I think, to be wildly passionate about doing the best we can for our kids.

Kitchen Stewardship is here to help you do just that, while balancing their nutrition on top of a world that also needs our care and a budget that isn’t getting any looser.

When you throw away food, you throw away money.

When your kids throw away food at school, it’s like a hairline crack in your water jug – the liquid is slowly leaking out such that you don’t even notice, but nonetheless, your money is going out without a return.

How can you pack the perfect lunch so that nothing gets wasted, and yet you’re not relying on packaged, processed (expensive anyway) food?

For Starters: Use Reusable Lunch Supplies

It’s almost too obvious to state, but it’s also easy to miss this idea in the slew of marketing for Ziploc bags and single serve convenience lunch foods during back-to-school season.

There are so many great brands to choose from nowadays, and I can tell you from experience that if you invest in quality reusable bags and stainless steel containers, you will not have to buy more for many, many years!

We’ve been using many of ours for SEVEN years now without having to replace any (just add more as we add lunch-packing school-aged children to the household).

We also “cheat” a lot if we’re not using officially reusable containers or bags – we reuse them anyway or DIY it. For example:

Reuse the sandwich bags as many times as they’ll last. I’m not a big fan of actually washing and drying sandwich bags. They’re so thin, and it probably uses more water to wash them than to create a new one. Just reuse for the same kind of sandwich the next day.

Avoid plastic by purchasing waxed paper sandwich bags. These can be reused a few times as well. You can even use waxed paper to wrap a sandwich up, as long as the child knows not to let it fall out of the wrappings.

Wrap a sandwich in a cloth napkin or bandana. Both can be used as a napkin or a placemat when the child gets to school.

Use a plastic box with a lid instead of a bag. (Reuse this without washing if it’s just a room temp sandwich, too!)Added bonus: No more squashed sandwiches!

A great story: I remember being proud of one family at my school for reusing their sandwich bags before “being green” was even very popular. I had a child with a peanut allergy in class, and PBJ sandwiches were strongly discouraged. One student told me she had to sit at the “peanut table” one day because there was some peanut butter residue from a sibling’s lunch in her sandwich bag (with her lunchmeat sandwich in it). I remain impressed by her close attention and conscientiousness in keeping her classmate safe, and by the family’s obvious choice to avoid waste and be frugal.

Be aware of one more new marketing hoax: lunchboxes with microban, an antibacterial agent not proven to do anything but play into parents’ germaphobic fears and sell products. See The Smart Mama’s post on the subject for more.

If you must use single serving dealies, check Terracycle to see if you can utilize your trash and “upcycle” it.

What Happens to Lunch when Lunch is Over?

As a third grade teacher, I witnessed plenty of kids performing the end-of-lunch ritual called “The Lunchbox Dump.”

It looks like this:

Lunchtime ends.

Child tosses anything left in front of him/her into the lunchbox.

Child rushes to the industrial-sized garbage can and dumps the entire contents of the lunchbox inside, then heads for the playground.

This is why mothers everywhere tremble at the thought of sending reusable plastic containers in school lunches, and many a container has been plucked out of piles of sandwiches with one bite missing, drippy applesauce, half full plastic baggies, and leaking juice boxes.

School cafeterias are breeding grounds for garbage, from brown bags to yogurt cups, orange peels to sandwiches with only one bite missing.

I’ve always had a problem with waste.

Way back in sixth grade, a friend and I actually stood by the garbage cans in our elementary cafeteria and directed all the students to sort out their lunchtime waste: milk in a bucket, food in the first can and other garbage in the next. We weighed it all and measured the volume of milk and published our results in the school newspaper. (Yes, thank you, I was nerd. But at least I didn’t have to go outside in the snow for recess for a week! I was weighing garbage…)

Times haven’t changed much, and if anything, we probably create more waste as a society now than when I was a pre-teen.

I’m not sure what’s worse, the thought of picking through the lunch trash for a container or thinking about how much food is thrown away (along with Mom’s Tupperware) across the nation because of The Lunchbox Dump.

That’s why, both as a teacher and as a parent, I coached my kids in the numero uno rule of school lunch packing:

1. Everything comes home. Everything.

From empty baggies to half eaten muffins, everything that went to school in the lunchbox comes home again. (And we haven’t lost a single teaspoon to the trash yet!)

Then you get to decide what is worthy of the trash and what is a leftover instead.

But even if you’re using plastic baggies and single-serve packaging (ahem, that wastes your money, too!), you should still coach your child – require your child – to bring home everything.

Play to their sense of laziness by explaining that if they don’t have to take a trip to the garbage, they’ll have more time to play/eat/talk. It’s just easier to dump everything back in the lunchbox and be done with it.

This gives you, the parent, many tidbits of valuable information.

Packing healthy lunches when you’re short on time and out of bread is mind-boggling. Is there such a thing as a lunch without a sandwich? Is it possible for it to be healthy too?

3. Balance chewing with fast food.

My son will eat 5 carrot sticks and whole pile of cucumbers at dinner, but for lunch, I pack one or two of each, tops. They take too long to chew. Any more than that and they won’t get eaten anyway.

The yogurt, on the other hand, he almost always finishes. It’s quick, and I think he eats it first, so he gets a cup of homemade yogurt every day.

It’s soft and quick.

You know – “fast” food.

Take a moment to consider how long certain foods take to chew when you’re trying to pack a school lunch that won’t get wasted.

4. Use an ice pack.

You may have seen statistics from the people who run studies on food safety (they probably have some letters standing for the name of the federal organization…) that such-and-such percent of kids’ packed school lunches aren’t at a safe temperature by lunchtime.

That makes two good reasons to use an ice pack.

One is food safety.

The other is food conservation.

If the food that is left in the lunch remains more or less cold, I don’t feel badly about sending it back the next day.

Not only does this ensure that food isn’t thrown away unnecessarily, but it also saves me dishes. I like that.

Bonus tip:

I also will save dishes by packing the same “twin” lunch two days in a row, reusing the containers. Only two days. No more. But it’s nice to not have to think for day two.

Whether you use plastic baggies or reusables for dry snacks like pretzels or granola bars, ask the child to bring them home and simply refill them with the same or similar item for the next day. I’ll knock out crumbs from bags far longer than I’ll pack “twin” lunches that need to be refrigerated.

Want great homemade snacks? Check out Healthy Snacks to Go, my own eBook with over 45 recipes to get you on your way with real food, fast.

5. Don’t forget the utensils.

There are only two possible results when a utensil is needed for a school lunch item and it isn’t in the lunchbox.

(a) The child doesn’t eat that item at all.

(b) The child spends 5 minutes of that 7.9 minutes of precious eating time tracking down a utensil s/he can use.

Either may result in food not eaten, and thus wasted. It’s a hard one for me as I mutlitask, but I always include a spoon for my son’s yogurt.

If your child is responsible enough, I highly encourage you to use a real utensil instead of a plastic one. If you just can’t fathom that, at least ask for the plastics to be brought home and wash those!

6. Communicate with your child.

A little talk goes a long way.

Have a chat about school lunch with your child, and explain to them that you’ll do your best to pack things that they like and that will give them fuel and brain food for the rest of their day.

They, in turn, are expected to tell you when it’s not working. Ask them what they like and don’t like about lunch, discuss the amount of time they have to eat, and make sure they understand the rule about bringing everything home (and how it helps them get better lunches in the long run).

7. Pack foods your child likes.

You don’t have to pack junk, but if your child hates peas, it’s futile to put peas in the lunch.

You may feel you have to include a vegetable. (Unfortunately, some schools are requiring packed lunches to conform to USDA nutritional guidelines/food pyramid, but that’s another story entirely. I pray you don’t have to deal with that sort of bureaucracy.)

Now, you probably should include a veggie in lunch – but if frozen peas are the only option in the house because it’s shopping day and there’s no fresh produce to be found in the crisper, and your child hates peas…well, don’t fool yourself. Skip the futile effort and try to get veggies in at snacktime or the next day.

The conversation about what to eat for lunch comes in handy, here, too, as does rule number one. You need to know what your child likes in order to pack lunches that will be eaten and not wasted. (OR have them pack their own with the tips for packing real food lunches that I shared after my son earned his way into that responsibility.)

8. Water is a fine drink.

75% of hot lunch kids drink the chocolate milk first, according to my observations last year when I sat with my first grader at lunch.

Unless you can pack raw milk and keep it acceptably cold through to lunchtime, skip the caloric drinks that your child will probably fill up on before even determining what else is in the lunchbox. (See rule no. 3 on fast food for the reason why.)

Water is a fine drink, and free. Use a reusable water bottle, which will never get thrown away on accident because your child isn’t taking the obligatory dump-the-lunchbox trip to the garbage can.

Warning: Watch out for aluminum water bottles! I wish I were kidding, but somehow someone decided to capitalize on the fact that people are out looking for safe, metal alternatives to plastic and market an inexpensive metal water bottle, even though the health risks of aluminum are equal to those of plastic! Sheesh. I saw an aluminum water bottle in our Target ad for $5 this week. Don’t buy them!

9. Skip the dessert.

85% of cold lunch kids eat their dessert first, also according to my off-the-cuff-I’m-making-this-up observations at school.

Don’t give your child that temptation.

If they don’t have a sweet treat to distract them, they’ll eat the healthy stuff first, and more of it. After all, eating well is as important as (or more than) spending less.

10. Tell the kids to bring everything home.

This is really the hinge upon which success rests, which is why it deserves yet another mention. When the child brings everything home, you can

Know what they like.

Have an idea of appropriate quantity.

Reuse baggies and use reusable storage items/utensils.

Send food the next day that was uneaten (with discretion).

Pack a twin lunch the next day in the same container.

Especially if you want to send food back the next day, it’s pretty important to unpack the lunchbox right away. I make this my son’s responsibility – when he walks in the house from school, he has to wash his hands, take care of lunch, and unload his backpack for me to see. (More on How to Teach Your Child Responsibility with After School Chores)

But What to Pack?

If you’re at a loss for healthy ideas for lunch packing that aren’t in packages AND that your child will eat, check out these posts:

About Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

I’m a Catholic wife and mother of four who wants the best of nutrition and living for her family. I believe that God calls us to be good stewards of all His gifts as we work to feed our families: time, finances, the good green earth, and of course, our healthy bodies. I'm the founder and boss lady here at Kitchen Stewardship -- welcome aboard!

36 Bites of Conversation So Far

Great tips! I’m curious though–do you have an age at which you stop packing lunches? My parents made me pack my lunches starting in around 4th or 5th grade. I felt like it taught me responsibility, I was more likely to eat everything, and it made things easier for my mom as well.

Mary, Love it! I’m sure I’ll get there, either out of desperation or a parental sense of building responsibility, but for now my eldest is only 7. I’ve seen great charts and stuff for helping kiddos that young pack lunches, but my fridge and kitchen are something so haphazard, I don’t think he would be able to come up with ideas easily enough quite yet. I’m happy with him unpacking for this year, but next year maybe he’ll start more responsibility! 🙂 Katie

thanks for this great list! a tidbit for #5 is to buy a set of metal cutlery from Goodwill for kid’s lunches – reusable & cheap but not the end of the world if it doesn’t make it through the school year.

Ok, so I’m not a mom (yet!) but I AM a STUDENT! I’m in my last year of grad school (full time), and committed to bringing my lunch every day (so I can control what I eat and hubs and I can save money!!). This post was FANTASTIC—my favorite tip was balancing chewing food with fast food. I love to make big salads with veggies, fruit, meat and nuts and bring them with me to school, but one day a week, I have 15 min to get from one end of campus to the other and need to eat on the run…yogurt and other quick to eat foods is a great idea. I love making oat bran mini-muffins (with zucchini or pumpkin or bananas or blueberries or whatever) for a lunch “treat”—they don’t have to be very sweet (I omit sugar and just use a tablespoon or so of raw honey). It might be a good “treat” to send with kids, since they look like cupcakes 🙂

Had to say thanks for this fantastic article! I am putting my kids in public school for the first time this year and I also am going back to college. I was horrified when I saw the fast food ick available on my new campus. Bleh! My kids and myself will both benefit from this very helpful information. Thank you!

I still use small portion plastic containers just cause we have them, and it seems wasteful to change them out for anything new, even if stainless steel is better. They’re #5 and we don’t heat them up ever (don’t use a microwave anymore).

Lacey, We kind of bought glass containers/stainless steel but still have the plastic ones in the cupboard for backup – they won’t last forever anyway, lids always cracking and such, so they just exist side by side.

The Lunchbots are great, but they’re definitely not for liquids or yogurt; that would leak if tipped and maybe even from compartment to compartment under the dividing walls. 🙂 Katie

I really like the tip about food that takes longer vs. food that’s easy to eat. I think that probably explains about 75% of the leftovers in my kids’ lunches. My biggest challenge is that they never eat a consistent amount! I’ll send exactly the same lunch and one day it will be gone and another it will be less than half eaten.

Also, my daughter eats WAY more at school than she does at home for lunch, so it’s actually hard for me to pack enough food for her with the little voice in my head saying “there’s no way she can eat that much.”

Of interest, we have lived overseas a couple of times for my husband’s work. When my kids attended French public schools they had nearly TWO HOURS for lunch. When they ate the ‘school lunch’ it was a five-course meal with various veggies and sauces and even raw meats. This is definitely something we should be improving in our busy American lifestyles;)

I love your notes! I found them yesterday and printed them up, and then laminated them (well, contact-papered them since I don’t have a laminator). That way I can hopefully reuse them between the 2 kids until someone accidentally chucks it into the garbage. That’s why I love the suggestion about everything that goes, comes home.

Ever thought of writing an ebook about school lunches? You could include lunch menus full of items that are easy to pack and eat, tips about how to pack them so they keep well, planning tips, etc. I bet people would love it! (I don’t pack lunches in this season of my life, except for my husband, but maybe someday this will really come in handy!)

My daughter isn’t old enough for school yet, but I’m gonna hang onto this post for when she starts. I love the idea of telling your kids to bring back everything from their lunch. I would be worried about reusable items being tossed and this is a great way around that problem.

very very helpful, i always use yogurt as a go to. It’s quick to eat, delish, and easy to prepare. I always have fruit or veggies, and as a ‘treat’ I’ll slide a few thin slices of steak in there…I only deal with grass fed beefand don’t over do it.

Please remember that I’m just a gal who reads a lot and spends way too much time in her kitchen. I’m not a doctor, nurse, scientist, or even a real chef, and certainly the FDA hasn't evaluated anything on this blog. Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please talk to your health professional (or at least your spouse) before doing anything you might think is questionable. Trust your own judgment…I can’t be liable for problems that occur from bad decisions you make based on content found here.

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